By Emelie Rutherford
The Navy ordered 1,700 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All-Terrain Vehicles (M-ATVs) from Oshkosh Corp. [OSK] on July 31.
The contracting award, worth $1.1 billion, come after the Pentagon on June 30 announced Oshkosh won the five-way M-ATV competition. The first order was placed with Oshkosh on June 30 for 2,244 vehicles at a cost of $1.1 billion.
The Oshkosh, Wis., truck builder in June beat BAE Systems’ Global Tactical Systems business; BAE’s U.S. Combat Systems unit; Navistar Defense LLC [NAV]; and Force Dynamics LLC, a joint venture between Force Protection, Inc. [FRPT] and General Dynamics [GD].
Marine Corps Systems Command head Brig. Gen. Michael Brogan told reporters on July 1 that Oshkosh was the “clear winner” in the M-ATV competition. At the time he said the Pentagon would order 3,000 more M-ATVs from Oshkosh by the end of July. The July 31 order instead was for 1,700 of the new vehicles.
The first solicitation documents for the M-ATV emerged last November, after the final orders were placed in the two-year effort to speedily buy more than 16,000 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles (MRAPs) for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. M-ATVs are intended to be lighter and more maneuverable off road than MRAPs are.
M-ATVs are replacements for up-armored Humvees, not for MRAPs currently in theater, Brogan said.